Karl Rove in San Francisco: “Behind enemy lines”

(Sorry all. Meant to post this last night but had some technical difficulties.)

Karl Rove in San Francisco? Even he seemed a bit…awed? Bewildered? Bemused? Nonetheless, Bush’s Brain was the rock star attraction at a dinner Thursday night at The Ritz-Carlton to kick off the debut of the Heritage Foundation’s new San Francisco Bay branch.

(For the past couple of years, the premier conservative thinktank has been establishing outposts around the country to stoke the grassroots brush fires all year-round. And anybody who lives in the Bay Area knows that there’s a lot of closeted conservatives here. Why do you think KSFO has a decent audience.)

“Fellow counter-revolutionaries!” Rove bellowed to open his remarks after receiving a standing ovation from the 500 folks who packed the ballroom. “Revolutionaries! We meet behind enemy lines. And we will prevail!”

“It must not be easy to be a easy to be a conservative in San Francisco,” Bush’s Brain said. “You must be people of character.”

And Rove must have thought it must not have been safe to be a conservative speaking in San Francisco. He was flanked by security as he spoke, and stout-looking fellas guarded every entrance. Dude was blanketed like a head of state. Note to Code Pink: You’re losing your touch. Where were you?

For an hour or so, Rove held court over some sort of bizarro San Francisco. Could count the number of African-Americans on one hand in the room. Lot of silver hair in the room. Here, a mention of Fox News got cheers. So did shout-outs and images of Ed Meese and Margaret Thatcher and South Carolina GOP Rep. Joe “You Lie” Wilson.

And yes, when Rove ploughed a litany of what he thinks are President Obama’s most onerous moves thus far (misdirected stimulus package, hidden costs of cap and trade proposals, how there are only five million uninsured people who need health care reform) someone in the audience yelled out “He lied!” And that got a laugh.

Mostly, Rove was here to give the conservative grassroots an encouraging shoulder-rub. (“We will be back.”) But in an insight into the way Rove plays the long-term political angles, he gave the faithful a little tough love, too.

“This year it’s Ok to say what we’re against. But next year, conservatives have to be comfortable about talking about what we’re for.” Specifically in the areas of health care and the skyrocketing cost of education.

So why wait?

And there was even a (conditional) kind word for the O. “When he’s right, we ought to support him with our words and our deeds,” Rove said. That, too, brought a solid round of applause. What The O has gotten right so far, according to B. Brain: The transition in Iraq.

On California’s governor’s race: “Who would want that job?” It would take someone who “thinks outside the box.” No endorsement.

On the Tea Party movement: “I hope it doesn’t create a third party.”

On the young conservative activists whose video of shenanigans at ACORN offices have been widely seen: “Those three people (including Andrew Breitbart) deserve our thanks and if they need our financial support…” the rest was drowned out in applause.

We got three minutes with B.Brain afterwards — oh, and not a minute longer — and prodded him for his thoughts about California’s guv race. Said he hasn’t really been following too closely. Rove said Meg Whitman’s lack of experience won’t necessarily be a disadvantage in that she is an outside-the-system candidate, and said Steve Poizner has a lot of grassroots support. Said Carly Fiorina has a chance against incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer who is a “hyperpartisan.” Indeed, takes one to know one.

The oddest moment: Rove — and his posse, which rivals in size that of an A-list rapper — refused to let us film him with our Flip Video cam. Yes, even though he did a local TV sitdown. C’mon, Karl. You’re too big to be vain.